Draped in mint green fur with similarly hued high-waisted trousers, Lil Nas X is posed on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s June 2021 Pride Issue. In the annual issue, which also features covers featuring Pose star Mj Rodriguez, multi-hyphenate Lena Waithe and SNL‘s Bowen Yang, the Old Town Road star speaks on his rise to fame from TikTok and how his propensity to make headlines is his reminder to show up authentically.
"I'm thankful. But it also feels good to prove people wrong." At 22 years old, @LilNasX is already a pro at breaking barriers — one song (and several clapbacks) at a time. https://t.co/nQn2X15CY9 Story by Ira Madison III pic.twitter.com/eUk0YdZCkp
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) May 4, 2021
Reminiscing on the start of his career, the 20-year-old says, “I was only getting like 1,000 plays a song [on Soundcloud], but I knew for a fact something huge was coming. And it happened. It didn’t even take a year of making music, and then boom.” And the ‘boom’ he means is his explosive breakout single, “Old Town Road” (yeah, casual). Once it gained traction on TikTok in 2019, it would quickly become the longest-charting No. 1 song in Billboard Hot 100 history and even surpass streaming records set by Drake. The country-pop smash hit gained a feature from Billy Ray Cyrus on the remix, which earned two Grammys the following year for the beloved rendition.
In the same year of Nas’ grand entrance into the industry, the singer took the daring leap to openly disclose his sexuality and open himself up to the industry’s homophobia. “Once you show the world more of yourself, they can relate more,” he says. Eager to join the ranks of those who refuse to appease the status quo, he continues, “Looking back on history, the biggest icons, the biggest artists, are the ones who aren’t trying to always make everybody happy and who were doing themselves. I hope to do that at all times.” For Nas, this means that he isn’t shying away from controversy anytime soon if it has anything to do with the art he creates for his own fulfillment.
Most recently, the release “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” was decried by conservatives and Christians alike as blasphemy for its lyrics that explicitly discuss queer sex and the accompanying music video that features the singer seducing the devil with a lap dance. But once again, Lil Nas X’s ability to audaciously present himself to the world prevails as the song, which lends its title to his upcoming album, topped the Billboard Hot 100. And although Nas has a penchant for successful hits and quick-witted clapbacks to any and all opposition, self-assuredness wasn’t always his strong suit. When he was younger, his sexuality and his Blackness caused an internal strife that he is learning to forgive himself for. “I feel like it’s very important, especially in this age, to forgive yourself for the past,” he says, pointing to how the Internet is a permanent document of our ever-changing lives. “At the end of the day, you are the main person that has to depend on you before anybody else. You have to love and nourish yourself.”
